fief
/fiːf/noun
fief is spelled F-I-E-F: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 59,387th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fief means “Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fief is fiefs.
How many letters and syllables are in fief?
| Letters | 4: F-I-E-F |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 59,387th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is fief?
Fief appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 59,387th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fief?
- /fiːf/
Fief has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fief.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with fief?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as fief.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: fife.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of fief
- fiefs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fief mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
- 2
Synonym of estate: any land, when considered as a region over which the owner exercises lordly control.
- 3
A territory, a domain, an area over which one exercises lordly control, particularly with regard to corporate or governmental bureaucracies.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fief in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fief come from?
From Middle French fief, from Old French fief, from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (whence also Old French fieu, fied), from Old Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *peḱu- (“sheep”). Doublet of fee, feud, and feoff.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).